Bandar Abbas, Persia, August 19, 1917 Dear Friend, On the 10th inst. we completed our long sea voyage and came to our camp in the desert along the shore of the Gulf. I am one of three who are to stay here for three or four months. Our camp is an hour's ride from the town which makes it all the better; it is one of those places that one soon tires of, with its low mud houses. There are at least three interesting bits of scenery which I can see fairly well through my glasses from our tent. The Island of Hormuz is eight miles away, and at one end is an old Portuguese fort which makes an interesting study. Two miles to the east is a beautiful village admirably situated in a large grove of palms. To the north and visible on clear days, stretch the Kuh-e-Gireh Mountains with their peaks towering among the clouds at a height of 8,000 feet. Their bare and furrowed slopes look quite rugged and imposing. I have only two parades a day - 5.30 - 7.30 a.m. and 5.00- 6.30 p.m. when I supervise squad drill. I am doing this merely to fill in time until I go elsewhere. The other two officers are busy with classes in musketry. Between times I have to spend some time looking up words to use in talking to the men. The Indian instructors require very close watching, and that is more than half of the work. I like it very much and find the Persians quite interesting to train. Looking across the desert I can see the heat waves rising from the ground, just as above a fire in an ordinary climate. The nights are quite comfortable - enough so for one to sleep well. Lately it has become noticeably cooler, the thermometer having dropped to eighty-six several mornings ago. During the day it is often up to a hundred and five. This is a very damp heat; the breeze seems laden with steam as it blows off the Gulf. The haze which usually obscures the mountains is one evidence of this. By way of animals, there is no end of camels, donkeys, goats and dogs about. Last week I saw a line of camels over a mile long move off in a caravan, followed by as many donkeys. Such sights as this are more charmingly wild than anything even on a Western ranch: here there is nothing of the elements of a spreading civilization as is the case there. There are a number of riding horses in camp. Riding is our principal recreation, and there are only two directions we can go - either way along the beach. The five of us rode to the town several nights ago. I found it quite unlike any place I had seen, all the houses being of white, sun-dried clay bricks with flat roofs and holes for windows. We saw many of the inhabitants having their evening meal on the roofs where, I believe, they sleep as well. There are a fair number of trees, mostly date palms, growing out of the parched soil with as luxuriant foliage as one would find anywhere. Dates are the only fresh fruit obtainable at present in this neighbourhood. We get mangoes for the mess from India. The town itself owes its existence entirely to trade, and not to any local resources. There is something done at fishing in the ordinary way, and for pearls, which are, after all, of some importance as a local industry. No carpets are woven here. I am sorry to be stationed here, where it is hard to learn good Persian; this dialect is such a mixture of several Oriental languages including Hindustani and Arabic. At present I am trying to get a native teacher to get a fresh hold of the colloquial language and then do all I can at their literature and at Arabic as well. I have a whole donkeyload of books with me, enough to keep me reading during spare time for two years, and the majority of them are on the East. It is interesting work to teach a native servant what you want him to do. Several mornings ago our servant cleaned my boots with one of my tent-mate's hair-brushes. I have one for myself now, a boy of not more than seventeen, of whom I expect great things. He is a very smart soldier on parade. Yours sincerely, Lt. D.A.Lane Lt. D.A. Lane, Bandar Abbas, Persia